Origin of Evil

Never before had Ellery Queen come up against such hot-tempered, trouble
making people asLeander Hill: He received a dead dog in the mails and the shock
killed him...Laurel Hill: She swore her father had been murdered and she was ready
to prove it with a gun...Roger Priam: Leander Hill's partner. Paralyzed from the waist down,
he snarled at the world with rage and hurt vanity...Alfred Wallace: Priam's silver-haired, suave secretary, he served
his master in strange ways...Mrs. Roger Priam: In Ellery's words: "She was big game....She
seized and held the senses; everything was leashed and lovely and
dangerous." As soon as he met these people, Ellery Queen could smell the
odor of MURDER...nasty, foul, ridden with hate.